Eric Fry has just posted the third official release (version 0.3, that is) of Nuvie, his Exult-like cross-platform front-end/engine for Ultima 6 (and, maybe one day, Savage Empire and Martian Dreams as well).  It includes a lot of improvements to the introduction sequence and menus, and improvements to transportation.

The introduction/character creation sequences are the highlight of this release. Both intro sequences have been completed along with the gypsy character creation and the main menu logic.

What’s new in this release.

• Bootup introduction sequence.
• Introduction sequence.
• Gypsy character creation sequence.
• Acknowledgements.
• Main menu.
• Trap effects
• Lens animation
• Balloon/raft movement
• Ship’s cannon
• Double handed weapons in inventory.
• Ship combat logic. Party flees in raft when ship is destroyed.
• Fade out magical creatures when they die.
• Powder kegs
• use lockpick
• Remember previous attack target when attacking with player.
• Numerous bug fixes

Version 0.3 can be downloaded from our download page. Offical builds are available for Windows and Mac. Source code is provided for other systems including Linux.

Please report any bugs or missing features using the tracker on our sourceforge project page here.

That’s a lot of improvements, and I’m glad to see the implementation of the main menu and introduction sequence.  The Ultima VI introduction is probably my favorite of the entire Ultima series.

Go check it out!

The First Age of Update [WtFD]: I’ve gone ahead and updated both the main downloads and snapshot downloads at the Nuvie project entry here on the site.